Set quarterly goals

Get motivated by a visible finish line

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to set quarterly goals. New Year's resolutions are great,
but a year is a long time. Quarterly goals can

(00:26):
keep you motivated toward a visible finish line. So lots
of businesses report their earnings quarterly. They forecast how the
business will run over the quarter, and they report back. Now.
I know not all companies love investors breathing down their
necks every quarter, but this ninety day timeframe provides a

(00:48):
lot of accountability. A quarterly check in acknowledges that a
year is a really long time, and it's wise to
have at least a few points along the way to
take stock and pivot if necessary, or to set new targets.
I think this is a good way for people to
think about their lives as well. I'm sure you have

(01:10):
big bucketless goals, and you probably have annual goals too.
But as this episode airs near the end of the
first quarter of the year, why not take stock of
how things are going and figure out what you'd like
to do by the end of June. That is, what
are your second quarter goals. You could take a few

(01:32):
minutes to look back at the first ninety days of
the year. What did you get done, what did you like,
what worked, what didn't work so well. Then you might
think about any big annual goals and think about whether
those could be accomplished or partly accomplished in the next
ninety days. You might also think about whether there are

(01:54):
other things you'd like to do in general, as you
think about what's on the calendar and the weather and
so forth. There are a few upsides to this approach. First,
it's hard to know in December all the details of
what life will look like next December. I think we
can get a pretty good sense of a year, which

(02:14):
is eighty seven hundred and sixty hours. But the further
you get into the future, the murkier everything becomes. The
next ninety days, on the other hand, are starting to
get pretty clear. You might already have some trips booked
or know when the weekends will be. During busy seasons,
when things are already planned. Because the landscape is more known,

(02:39):
you have a better sense of what will be possible.
Setting goals every ninety days also allows you to set
more goals without things being in competition. If you want
to train for a half marathon and be in a
community theater production, that might be a lot to take
on at any one point in addition to your work

(03:01):
and family responsibilities. But you could train for a half
marathon over three months as a Q two goal. Then
you could audition for a performance in Q three and
have that be a goal for later in the year.
You don't try to cram everything in at once, but
you also don't feel guilty as you're training for that

(03:21):
half marathon that you have failed at your theater goal.
It's still there, it's just timed to a different quarter.
So take a few minutes now to look at the
landscape for the next three months. What do you hope
to do, What do you need to do to make
that happen. What time can you block out to work

(03:41):
on these things? How will you know if you've accomplished
your goals? Then ninety days from now, hopefully you will
be celebrating several things, and then you'll be able to
focus on some new goals, confident that everything is getting done.
In the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and

(04:05):
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:30):
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